Daily News Notes

· Giving details of the business conducted during the Winter Session, the House had 24 sittings of 85 hrs, introduced 27 Bills of which 18 were passed. These included the Prasar Bharati Corporation Amendment Bill, Cable TV Network Amendment Bill and the Export Import Bank of India Amendment Bill, while Supplementary Demands for Grants for the Railways and the General Budget got passed
· The Government has adopted a multi-pronged strategy to effectively combat the Encephalitis, popularly known as brain fever in various parts of the country, pertaining to prevention, case management and rehabilitation. Encephalitis is not only a medical problem but a broader and complex development issue linked to social determinants of health, such as safe drinking water, basic sanitation, personal hygiene and nutrition.
· Addressing a function of Dalits and Minorities International Forum, Dr. Manmohan Singh said that the recent package for handloom and handicrafts sectors will benefit 3 lakh weavers and 15,000 cooperative societies across the country. He also called for speeding up the implementation of the Sachchar Committee recommendations which was for the welfare of minorities and weaker sections of society.
· The Northern Railway has launched a real-time train information toll free SMS service, aims at providing relief to passengers during foggy days when trains run hours behind schedule.
· The country’s first cooperative university (Rajiv Gandhi University of Cooperative Management) is being set up at Sibsagar in Assam which will offer courses on cooperative management and train existing manpower in both the government and the private sectors, to manage the cooperative sector.
· The severe cyclonic storm “Thane” lay centered this morning in southwest Bay of Bengal and is likely to move west-wards and cross north Tamil Nadu coast. Both TN and AP Chief Minister has asked coastal district Collectors to be alert in view of the tropical cyclone situation as DM is responsible and leads the disaster management in a district.
· Food Inflation (measured by Wholesale Price Index) fell sharply to a six-year low of 0.42 per cent in the week ended December 17th. Onions grew cheaper by ~59%, potato by ~34 and vegetables by ~36% year-on-year basis.
· Bosnia's main Muslim, Croat and Serb parties have agreed to form a Central government, ending a 14-month political crisis that paralyzed the state and blocked further integration with the European Union.
· Official mourning for the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has ended with a national memorial service in Pyongyang with his son and designated successor Kim Jong-un leads the ceremony.
· In Indonesia, at least 3 villagers have died and thousands more have been displaced as heavy rains caused cold lava and debris to flow into villages after volcanic mudflow in eastern part of the country took place last night.
· A Venezuelan campaign group said that a record number of murders (~20,000 or avg of 53 a day) have been killed this year and suggested that Venezuela's murder rate is the highest in South America and four times that of Mexico.
· The former Iraqi Prime Minister said, the country is heading towards a civil war due to ongoing political crisis which includes release of all detainees held on false charges and setting up of a panel of top politicians to oversee and prevent interference in legal procedures. Thus demanded to get it resolved ASAP.
· The U.S. space agency has said that NASA's twin spacecraft (Named Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory) to study the moon from crust to core are scheduled to be placed in orbit on Dec. 31 (for GRAIL-A), and on Jan. 1 (for GRAIL-B). They were launched on 10 September 2011.
· Australia today defeated India by 122 runs in the first cricket test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.